Maryland Lawyer Blog

• Biggest event in the Maryland legal world is that the bar exam kicks off today. If you are taking it, good luck. If your ex-girlfriend is taking the exam, I hope she fails. But if you are reading this blog post about her taking the bar, you have a problem. Get over her already.
• The Court of Appeals might make it a lot harder for debt-collection firms to win judgments against no-show defendants. I love the detail of the manufactured "wife," "Shaniqua Jones," who was allegedly served with notice of a collection action against Marquis Jones. Someone obviously assumed that Marquis Jones, because of her name, was a black male, and made up a spouse with what this person thought was a typical black woman's name. Both sleazy and kind of racist. Nice.
• Speaking of racism, a fair-housing group is suing a Baltimore apartment owner-manager for giving white prospective tenants preferential treatment.
• Seven years after the murder of three children, two of their relatives will be tried a third time in the killings. HT: Baltimore Crime.
  
• Speaking of trials conducted way after the alleged crime, the two prisoners accused of killing a guard at Jessup five years ago still haven't been tried.
• A 1999 rape in Greenbelt may have been committed by the alleged East Coast Rapist.
• If you mess with your clients' money, bad things will happen to you. Also, if you practice in Maryland and D.C. and get suspended from practice in Maryland but somehow forget to tell D.C., when D.C. authorities find out, they will not be happy. This is why I'm not a huge fan of teaching legal ethics. You could give this guy 5 classes a year and he would still do just this. Hard to teach ethics. The key is to discipline the offenders.

The Maryland Bar Exam is coming around the corner once again for July 2011. You know what this means? Lots of traffic for this blog from people looking for information - any information - on the July exam.

Folks, I don't have much. But I have a theory. If you Googled something to the effect of "Maryland bar exam July 2011" you are more likely to pass the bar exam than someone who has not. Why? Because just the fact that you care so much to be looking for information, probably puts you in the category of law students that care more than most. You are 10% more likely to pass the bar exam if you read this post then those who don't (standard deviation: 10%).

My advice: relax. Easier said than done. But the chances are strong - statistically - you will pass the bar exam. If you don't? Seriously, seriously, the world will not come to an end. I can honestly say I only remember one person who didn't pass the bar. A lot of people I came out with didn't but I really only remember one person. No one remembers. There is a long career ahead for you even in the unlikely event you don't pass.

• Pass/fails for Maryland's bar in February 2011 (remember, pass rate is always much higher in July)
• Maryland Bar Examiners Website
• Last July's Results
• More on the Bar Exam (from the New York Personal Injury Attorney Blog)

From the Maryland Daily Record:

The Maryland Judiciary announced administrative appointments of three circuit court judges yesterday. Two of them are connected to the upcoming retirement of Judge Diane O. Leasure from Howard County Circuit Court in November. Judge Lenore R. Gelfman will become administrative judge for Howard County. Gelfman has served on the bench since 1996 following seven years as a district court judge.

Anne Arundel County Administrative Judge Nancy L. Davis-Loomis, meanwhile, will become administrative judge for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, which includes Anne Arundel, Carroll and Howard counties. Davis-Loomis has been the top judge in Anne Arundel County since 2007 and has been on the circuit court bench since 2000.

Last but not least, Judge M. Kenneth Long Jr. became administrative judge for Washington County late last month. Long has been on the bench for five years and succeeds Judge John H. McDowell.

The NAACP sues Anne Arundel County Schools:

The NAACP has filed a follow-up complaint claiming racial bias in student discipline at Anne Arundel County schools

Letter says African-American students still disciplined disproportionately, seven years after original complaint.

The complaint, filed with the civil rights office of the U.S. Department of Education on Friday, alleges that the number of African-American students referred for discipline and suspended have hardly changed since a similar complaint in 2004. That complaint led to an improvement plan agreed to in 2005 by the NAACP and the school system.

"Six years later, however, there has been no marked improvement in the disparate treatment of African-American students in disciplinary actions, which continues a pattern of denial and limitation of their educational opportunities and thus their future sustainability," the new complaint reads.

"We want to know why it hasn't gotten better and what's being done," said Jacqueline Boone Allsup, president of the county branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Maryland lawyer Michael Belsky files a sexual abuse lawsuit:

The Baltimore lawyers of two alleged sexual abuse victims on Wednesday filed civil complaints in Wicomico County Circuit Court against [an accused foster father] and Mentor Maryland, a private foster child placement agency.

Continue reading " Maryland Legal News " »

The general statute of limitations in Maryland is three years, as set forth in Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 5-101. This is the "default" statute of limitations that applies unless another limitations period is applicable. Master Fin., Inc. v. Crowder, 409 Md. 51, 70, 972 A.2d 864, 875 (2009).

I've seen statistics that nearly a third of all legal malpractice claims arise out of personal injury lawyers blowing the statute of limitations. How is that? Some lawyers are so disorganized they just miss the statute. But I suspect this is the minority of cases. The main culprits are the most notable exceptions for Maryland personal injury lawyers of these general rules which either apply a different statute of limitations or require notice to bring a claim:

• Maryland Local Government Tort Claims Act
• Maryland Tort Claims Act
• Federal Tort Claims Act
• Error in which states' procedural rules apply

ESPN provides the court's voir dire in the "Roger Clemens Is a Big Liar" case. (My own view: I don't want Roger Clemens in the Hall of Fame... or jail.)

• Voir Dire in Maryland Civil Cases (I really can't speak to criminal cases)
• Voir Dire in Maryland Part 2
• Judge Sweeney talks to me about voir dire
• Sample voir dire in a car accident case

• Maryland trial judges are near the bottom in a state-by-state salary ranking. Via On the Record. This is a bad thing. I realize the Maryland state budget is a disaster and everything and real cuts have to be made. But we really need good judges and it is important to do whatever we can to narrow the gap between what judges could make off the bench and what they make on the bench. Clearly, judges are going to make less than they could in private practice. If they require salaries that approximate their worth in the free market, they are not going to last as judges (or apply in the first place). The key, however, is to narrow the gap as much as we can to make the position as attractive as possible.
• Social security disability reform in the works?
• A Baltimore County auto shop pleads guilty in towing scheme. Seventeen - seventeen!!! - police officers were involved. More from the Baltimore Sun.
• This is a crazy story about a Maryland lawyer accepting a drink. This post is a little dated though (1928). Somehow, Clarence Darrow gets involved. True fact: apparently there were only 57 lawyers in the whole country in 1928. And they all knew each other.
• Maryland's next bar exam is getting closer.
• Thoughts on dealing with insurance company defense doctors.
• Calculating pain and suffering damages: jury verdict statistics
• There have been 11 deaths on Hartford County roads this year The latest was, not surprisingly, a motorcyclist (who apparently was not at-fault for the accident).

Shocker: Steeler's Hines Ward's arrest for DUI has made it into the Pittsburgh Steelers-Baltimore Ravens rivalry. Who would have thunk it? Ray Rice put on Twitter:

Well it looks like Hines Ward will miss week 1 when the lockout ends DUI charge not a good look.

A Steeler teammate responded sarcastically:

So glad you could Weigh in. Thx.

Rice wrote some type of "you know where to find me, bro" type response. Should Ray Rice just keep quiet about his kinda stuff? Of course. But Rice has a little street cred on drunk driving. First, his cousin was killed by a drunk driver when he was young. That kind of tragedy leaves an imprint. Rice is also putting his time where his mouth is. He helped the state of Maryland kick off its "Operation Checkpoint" campaign against drunk driving last August, according to ESPN. Of course, I don't know what "kicked off" really means but we can assume he had to spend time and energy on the project (and it is one that he chose).

I don't think Hines Ward should be hung in effigy but I have changed my mind in this same blog post. I think this mild trash talk from Rice is okay. Public figures have to know if they get caught driving drunk people are going to call them out on it. That is a good thing.

For years - it all started right after Henry Ford - accident lawyers have been listening to clients and their spouses say they should be entitled to compensation for loss of services even when the victim survives the accident. More Maryland accident lawyers are paying closer attention to this and including these damages in personal injury lawsuits.

Jury Verdict Research put out a study based on verdicts rendered from February 1998 through February 2010 for loss of services damages in non-wrongful death cases. The overall median compensatory award for loss of services in non-death cases was $25,000. The average, however, was $234,764.

Clearly, and this is interesting, juries are more receptive to these claims when the accident victim is a married woman. The median award was $40,000 for wives and the average was $365,510.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave the NFL owners a big win today, reversing the District Court ruling to lift the NFL lockout, handing the league a victory in a labor stoppage. Personally, I'm counting this as a loss for Tom Brady. He was the "starter" as the lead plaintiff in the players' class action.

There is a pretty strong dissent in the case by a Clinton appointee. The court split right on party lines.

What does this mean? I think the deal is done. Now they are just battling over the details. The owners were going to win 80% of those details. Now they win 90%.

You can find a copy of the 8th Circuit Opinion here.

• Thirteen years after the fact, a Tennessee man convicted of a 2001 racially-motivated murder admits in open court that he killed a Baltimore psychologist too.
• Should guilty pleas in traffic court be admissible? A yes vote.
• Medical malpractice news from last week.
• Nine are short-listed for two judicial vacancies in Baltimore City, including one personal-injury lawyer.
• Why should people who don't live in the violent neighborhoods of Baltimore care about crime there? Well, if for no other reason (and there are lots of reasons), there's this: more often than we'd like to admit, the violence spills over into the supposed "safe" neighborhoods.
• A state mediation program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure isn't aiding as many as had been hoped.
• The Court of Special Appeals upholds the Maryland Board of Physicians' decision to permanently revoke the license of a doctor whose patients complained that he sexually assaulted them. Call me crazy but I say good call.
• As the legal job market continues to stagnate, starting salaries for lawyers fall, unsurprisingly.
• Trying to market using social media? Don't do this.
• Ugh.